I bet if you took a stopwatch and tracked the actual elapsed time while the ball is actually in play (~2 seconds per pitch, 5-6 seconds per out, ~10 seconds per hit) it would be pretty close to the 12 or so minutes of actual action in football.

I enjoy baseball and football. It's just that there are so many baseball games, it's hard to watch it everyday. Football games are more of an event because you only get one game per week and the season is over in 3-4 months, depending on how far your favorite team goes. But a big at-bat in a postseason baseball game is very intense. I love the crowd shots when they show the fans praying or looking on nervously between pitches.

Matt hits it on the head, spending 3 hours on a sunday watching football is more appealing then spending 3 hours 5 days a week watching baseball. I'd say that I probably average 2-3 hours of baseball watching a week, I try to catch some part of each game on in a given week. But the fact that your team only plays once a week in football does make it more of an "event" then baseball.

it's not the length of the game. it's what each second of action means to a game and to a season. there's no way to compare something like a Double Play to an Interception in the red zone.

as for: "the action in an NFL game is constrained to as little as 12 minutes while in baseball the ball is almost always in play."

your definition of action would be very different from mine. for every second of "action" in a football play, there are 22 bodies all moving and engaged in their own specific match-ups and battles. while for every second of "action" in a baseball game, you have anywhere between 4-8 batters sitting on their butts doing absolutely nothing and 2-7 defensive players standing around doing much of nothing as well.

Well put, Layoneil. I've never heard anyone, in defense of baseball, state that "the ball is almost always in play," because well, that's just crazy talk!

Well said, I don't find baseball long at all.

If the popularity of a sport were based on how many minutes of actual "game action" there is, hockey and soccer would be the most popular sports in the USA. But we know that'll never happen, lol.

I love baseball! it is such a deep thinking man's game full of stratagy and keeps me entertained. I love football and watch every game the Browns play and usually watch Sunday nights' game. Baseball I only catch about 80 Tigers games and try to watch the post season. it's the sheer number of games that make the differance between the two.

Where did you find these facts and figures?

"...while in baseball the ball is almost always in play."

By that you mean it can be pitched at anytime ? Well, the ball can be hiked at almost anytime too. That's a silly way to prove baseball is more "action packed".

a lot of baseball games barely crack the 2 hour mark, yesterday's mets/marlins game for example.

Did I seriously hear you just say that baseball is almost always in play? If by "always in play" you mean waiting 10-20 seconds between every pitch, then yeah. The left fielder could potentially go four or five innings without having to so much as move a single muscle because the play is so uneventful. Why do you think MLB: The Show fast forwards through the game? Who wants to wait 15 seconds between each pitch.

Also, I assume 3 hours of football includes halftime. I don't count that as game-time, as I'm usually up getting a beer. There is no halftime in baseball, and for good reason. The game would last nearly four hours if there were.

Don't get me wrong. I like baseball. I simply don't see how baseball isn't a long drawn out event. There's no break and it's 2 hours and 50 minutes long. Football has one very long break and two shorter 7-8 minute breaks.

Baseball has it's own reasons for people to like it. It certainly isn't because it's as action packed as other sports. 1/3 of the entire game-time is spent waiting for the action to start. I think the clutch moments of baseball are what keep it exciting, not the constant action...as that's definitely not the case with baseball.

If you want to be very strict on the definition "ball-in-play" as to when the ball leaves the pitchers hand and when it's actually hit in the game, most every source I have consulted bring the total amount of time to around 12 minutes, similar to a football game. If you count in time that pickoffs and such happen then it's a bit longer.

I'm not saying either sport is a better sport, because as I said in my article I love both sports equally. However, to say baseball games are terribly long is a fallacy if you are comparing it to football. And to try to take out halftime and such to make football games seem shorter is silly as well, you'd have to take out time between half innings for baseball to be fair and the difference could end up even greater.

Like I said, judging sports based on the time they take isn't a smart way to do things at all...I merely was wanting to point out that those who think baseball games are long and drawn out probably don't realize that going to a football game is an even longer time commitment with similar starts and stops and such in the action.

But football games have been around 3 hours for a long time and they make rule changes to keep it to 3 hours. NBA and NHL games are under 2.5 hours. MLB games used to be a lot shorter which is the main complaint.

I like football and baseball but baseball can drive me nuts with batters constantly getting out of the box on every pitch and adjusting their batting gloves and going through routines. I don't mind it if someone is on base but when nobody is on, there isn't much of a need for signs from the coaches. Stay in the box and be ready.

I thought this might be about how long videos games of the sports take.

What is funny is a game of Madden can take around 40-55 minutes and 9 innings of baseball can take around 30-45 minutes.

Baseball in real life has a lot of delays that slow it down; changing pitchers, pinch runners, managers doing mound visits, catchers talking to pitchers, bunt plays, the list can go on forever.